NewCanaanite.com recently received the following letter. Send letters to editor@newcanaanite.com to have them published here.
***
When I looked outside that morning [Feb. 25], the rate of snowfall stood out to me. I thought at least a delay would be announced. But after a confirmation call to the Department of Transportation, they informed us that the bus would arrive as scheduled. At this point the snow plows hadn’t cleared out a big portion of the roads. A couple minutes after the call my bus very slowly came down my road. I could tell just from the speed of the bus that the ride would be difficult.
For a while I was the only one on the bus. I was just texting my friends and parents about what was going on while we continued our route. It was a struggle but nothing seemed too bad yet. We did slowly start to fall behind the bus schedule though.
Then at 7:20 our bus started going down the hill of Turner Hill Road. Our bus was behind another bus and going down the hill was difficult for both. The problem was that our bus started sliding down the hill faster than the other bus despite the brakes being applied. It was a quick and smart decision that my bus driver made, instead of ramming into the other bus, to swerve out of the way. This did end up leaving the bus colliding with the snow piles that had already formed from Monday’s blizzard and the branches of a tree. The impact was just a bit awkward, not violent or scary, and all of us were completely fine. The issue now was that the snow piles and branches prevented us from going forwards and down the hill, and the snow and ice forming prevented us from backing up. So we were stuck.
It took 20 minutes of struggle for the bus to free itself, but that was already enough time for the schedule to get disrupted. Only three additional students boarded the bus after. And at some point the bus driver was instructed to go straight to the school. Ten minutes out from the school the bus radio announced a two-hour delay. For the students still on the bus it was very confusing because school had already started for whoever was already there. I got to school about 30 minutes late and found out the delay was only for elementary and Saxe Intermediate Schools.
I want to make note of the fact that the decision whether to have school or not was very difficult. Many forecasts showed little snowfall and how the morning had played out had been surprising to me too. In my experience, situations like this are uncommon in this district. I continue to have confidence and appreciate the work that goes into making these decisions. I still support anyone involved in the decision and I am grateful to have them in our district.
Alex Mucida, 8th grade, Saxe Middle School